1st books ever back from CGC. Well, that was a disaster. Lesson learned hard way

[kimik]

One of the hardest things for me to do is evaluate high-grade books. It's easy to grade books from 2.0 to 8.0 or so.

I'm the complete opposite. I can grade high grade books, but can't grade anything below 9.0 worth a damn.

 

Indeed much easier to grade > VF/NM range

 

Yep. Same here. In the higher grades, you basically can expect them to look about the same (a 9.4 is going to look like the other 9.4's). When you get down into the lower grades, the looks of the books can be quite different. Two 4.0's can look like totally different books.

 

Agree 100% re: being better at grading 9.0 and up. I have always been a strict grader and from the start felt CGC was too lenient. I still can't believe the grades that Greggy gets on my culls that he snags at shows.....

 

Unless I miss a faint stain/spot or something on the inside of a book (missed small tears more than once by flipping through too fast ), I tend to get them back one to two grades higher than I am expecting which is a nice surprise.

 

 

 

 

[jimjum12]

One of the hardest things for me to do is evaluate high-grade books. It's easy to grade books from 2.0 to 8.0 or so.

I'm the complete opposite. I can grade high grade books, but can't grade anything below 9.0 worth a damn.

 

Plus, at least they didn't come back in purple holders!

That is so true. That was my hard lesson on my early submissions.

 

..... that's because all books below 9.0 are invisible to you GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[NoMan]

I travel to Houston a lot and visit every Bedrock City shop (all 5) every time I'm there. The other batch of books came from Bedrock. They were all graded spot on by Bedrock with what came back from CGC and priced fairly against GPA, I think. Every single person I've met at Bedrock is friendly and helpful. I'm currently working with Chris Chomiak, back issue manager at Bedrock Westheimer store in putting a Miller/ Daredevil run together. So I guess I'm doing some of the things you have suggested

That is one helluva testimonial. Thank you so much!!!

 

There is more. When I was at your farthest away store (from Sugarland. It was in a shopping plaza with some kinda free standing restaurant if you walked out the front door of your store to the street you would hit the restaurant) I was with my 90 year old mom. In your store she had a health issue in a moment I took my eyes off her. Your manager (?), he had a mop top haircut like a Beatle, and another employee had a chair under her before she could hit the floor. Someone ran over with water for her and calming her before I could even get to her.

 

Leeann at you Missouri City store has been tireless in teaching me the ropes when I'm in sugarland.

 

Bought a strange tales 110 cgc 3.5 at the main store from Chris.

 

Whatever you are doing, it's right

[drotto]

Do not feel bad. I have bought books in an attempt to grade a flip a few times, but most of my subs have come from digging through my own long boxes accumulated over the years. Much less pressure to dig out a book you paid cover for, and then grade, and it is a great way to learn about CGC grading at lower cost. In those cases I have always ended up at least slightly on the plus side when it come to money.

 

I did submit a modern that I had purchased that got wacked at a 7.5, when everything else I submitted came in about where I expected. Still have not figured that one out. I have also found out my LCS grades very close to CGC and his prices are right on market. So when I subbed a few of those, I got the grade I expected, but still lost money due to submission costs. Besides 7.5 and 8.0 on old X-Men are still very solid books.

 

I find it also helps doing your first submissions at cons with CGC. Once you work with the reps there a few times, they will often give subtle (or not so subtle) hints on if it is a good book. I have gotten comments like.... Wow that is a nice copy, or these are better than most I have seen. When I have submitted those they have always come back good. I even had a rep sort through my convention exclusives once and he pulled out the ones NOT to send. All he recommended me subbing came back 9.8.

 

The point is it happens, even the best graders and long time slabbers get killed at times.

[Transplant]

I travel to Houston a lot and visit every Bedrock City shop (all 5) every time I'm there. The other batch of books came from Bedrock. They were all graded spot on by Bedrock with what came back from CGC and priced fairly against GPA, I think. Every single person I've met at Bedrock is friendly and helpful. I'm currently working with Chris Chomiak, back issue manager at Bedrock Westheimer store in putting a Miller/ Daredevil run together. So I guess I'm doing some of the things you have suggested

That is one helluva testimonial. Thank you so much!!!

How are the breath mints and are they fairly priced?

[techtre2003]

OP,

You might want to pick up a copy of The Overstreet Guide to Grading Comics. It has detailed descriptions of each grade and has tons of pictures for examples. Well worth the purchase IMO.

Here's a link to the current version:

Gemstone Publishing

 

I also see Amazon has a pre-order up for a newer version coming out next month.

[the blob]

I gotta lay down. I'm going about this too fast. Patience, Grasshopper.

 

Please feel free to Thread-. I deserve it.

 

No, brother.... you don't deserve it...... no one deserves a hosing. There's sellers right here on this forum that could have hooked you up with those books at decent prices....... start building a network of friends and trusted associates...... some shops are OK, but there are plenty that just want to make the dollar. In the beginning, it might also be to your advantage to just get them already slabbed if that's what you want. It's the best way I know to learn how to grade. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

....PM me your address and I'll send you a stack of cool books for free, to help keep you from becoming bitter..... I'm not joking.

 

Exactly. Those sorts of books are sold here all the time for fair prices. Usually 5-15% less than the going rate on ebay.

[aerischan]

OP,

You might want to pick up a copy of The Overstreet Guide to Grading Comics. It has detailed descriptions of each grade and has tons of pictures for examples. Well worth the purchase IMO.

Here's a link to the current version:

Gemstone Publishing

 

I also see Amazon has a pre-order up for a newer version coming out next month.

Thanks for the link. Old version is out of stock at Amazon and Marketplace sellers want $90-1,000 for this.

[the blob]

Books were not bought at Mile High Comics. I'm simple but not that simple.

 

Does even Mile High have a mid grade Defenders 1 at $200?

 

MHC has a F at $104, VF at $163 and a NM at $271. What is a 6.5? Fine?

 

I bought at. Comic shop with higher prices then MHC. This just keep getting better and better.

 

That NM price is actually a very good price if the book is actually NM. But I doubt it is.

 

Edit:

 

They don't have a NM in stock. Just a VG. No doubts when they DO get a NM in stock that price will be adjusted and it will be $900 ($450 after the codeword).

[drotto]

Also as much as people here have a love hate relationship with eBay, it can be a very good way to get a feeling for current prices. Just take time to look through the various pictures and build a picture of the market. Overstreet is a great reference book, but market fluidity at times will make its stated values unreliable. GPA is another good research tool.

[fmaz]

I really just want to reiterate what most others are saying....sorry for your (financial) loss, but it seems like every first submission story involves that. Shoot I've bought slabs from others but haven't pulled the trigger myself yet, simply because I know how bad it'll be. But you know what, you can wait around and dip your toe in the pool like I'm doing, or run straight through the wall leaving one of those cartoon-like holes in the shape of your body, as you did. No guts, no glory.

Think of it this way, if nothing else, you bought yourself a really interesting story to tell.

 

In all seriousness, though... Thanks for sharing it. Hopefully it might help others at least mitigate their early errors.

[the blob]

Sorry you got double hosed. First buying books that I'm guessing were significantly overgraded and then sending them into CGC to compound the suffering.

 

With that said, I appreciate that you understand the boo boo and are not crying about victimization. We all make mistakes. I probably could have knocked the price on my house down by at least $15K more (as my wife has kept on reminding me for the last 10 years), but I wanted to get the deal done. Hindsight being 20/20, that "buyer coming in from Chicago to look at the house again and make an offer" was about as real as my six pack abs.

 

Don't become obsessed with paying the lowest possible price on everything if these are things you want to enjoy because sometimes waiting means the lowest price goes up. If you've been waiting for the price on a nice copy of ASM 129 to drop the last 6 or 7 years you haven't had much luck. But make an educated decision. You know that now. There is a lot of FREE information on pricing out there. But also don't assume the lowest completed sale price on ebay is "market" either (which is what some people here insist is the case), you should look at several sales to get a sense of the market.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

OP may want to look at a grading contest.

 

2016 Green Eggs Grading Contest

[the blob]

If it makes you feel any better when I got back into collecting around 1993 I did a pizz poor job of inspecting books before buying them. I did not get hit bad with missing interior pages/clipped coupons, but some back covers (and missing back covers!) I definitely regret buying based on what the front of the book looked like and trusting the grade given by the seller (these were in person show purchases). on higher grade books i did look closely, but on a lit of books I thought were 3.0 - 6.0, I was sloppy, but a bunch were "end of the show deals" done in a hurry where there wasn't time to do a thorough inspection. Probably added up to a bunch more in losses than you just got hit with, which have been exponentially compounded over the last 20 years given the money I sank into these books that I could have sunk into other books that have skyrocketed.

[grebal]

OP may want to look at a grading contest.

 

2016 Green Eggs Grading Contest

 

Yeah, but that DD 1 in round 10 got a gift grade by CGC that drew screams from the contestants.

[JWKyle]

Get one of these. They're cheap and will start to get you in the ball park. Grading is a skill that takes time and practice to become proficient.

 

 

[newshane]

Don't feel bad buddy...

 

my first submission was also a disaster. You learn a lesson, you learn it hard. At least it won't happen again.

[AGGIEZ]

This is the exact reason why I didn't submit for a few years and spent a lot of my board time reviewing and replying to threads in the PMG forum. Visit often and learn.

[NoMan]

Thanks all! See you in PGM. Maybe in FOR SALE a little

 

And in Yorba Linda in january

[VintageComics]

OP may want to look at a grading contest.

 

2016 Green Eggs Grading Contest

 

Yeah, but that DD 1 in round 10 got a gift grade by CGC that drew screams from the contestants.

 

That's the problem with grading from a scan. It's not like grading with the book in hand.

 

Most grading contests have at least one book that the majority gets up in arms about.